By Abdul Razak Bawa
I am not a soothsayer, neither am I a prophet, but I can tell with every certainty in my bone that, come January 7, 2025, John Dramani Mahama, will take the oath of office as the 6th president of the Republic of Ghana.
I am sure of this because I am waiting for December 7, 2024, like a patient bird to do the needful, to take a decision and to be a partaker in the struggle for a new Ghana where mediocrity, hypocrisy, impunity and corruption will be reduced to the barest minimum.
I will vote for him because he understands the problem of Ghana as a country. I will vote for John Dramani Mahama, because he has done it before and he will do it again.
Ghanaians, in 2016 and 2020, were fed lies and hoodwink into voting for a man, who claims he has been around for a long time. We were given a cliché that “he is not corrupt, has never been corrupt and will not be corrupt”.
We are where we are today, because we bought into the lies and decided to sell our coloured television for black and white.
We had the opportunity in 2020 to rewrite the history of this country and change course, but unfortunately what happened will be a dent on our democracy for a long time to come.
The Supreme Court, made a final determination, when the election was challenged in a petition brought before the Justices, the decision left much to be desired, but as the lawyers, say “ We disagree, but we respect the decision of the Supreme Court”.
Ghanaians and indeed, John Dramani Mahama, decided to move, unbeknown to them, it was a journey full of uncertainties and awkward moments. It is said that to whom much is given, much is expected, not only did Ghanaians give the mandate to Nana Akufo-Addo, when he pleaded with them to try him, he has also seen money through borrowing, grants etc, than any president in the history of the country.
So it begs the question, why things are going from bad to worse.
Every sector of the economy has not seen any improvement but rather decline. What is happening now, will take more than thirty years to reverse. This country will need about five presidents to reset our course, you can imagine why I say, I pity John Dramani Mahama, because the hole Akufo-Addo, is digging will take a miracle to fill in four years.
EDUCATION
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, since he made his first attempt at the presidency against John Evans Atta Mills in 2008, made Free Senior High School, his cardinal campaign promise. It is a song that has been sung over and over, and was reechoed in 2012, as well as 2016, when he eventually emerged victorious.
True to his words and in keeping with his campaign promise, the programme was launched in 2017. That promise and the subsequent launch marked the beginning of the downward spiral of the educational system.
The programme was not thought through and certainly no innovation, in the approach in introducing such a laudable policy that is the best leveler.
No Ghanaian, who is of sound mind opposes the Free SHS, but it is the manner of implementation that has gotten many people questioning whether, it is sustainable. President Akufo-Addo, who is not tidy and certainly not meticulous, has infected our educational system and it is a load waiting for John Dramani Mahama.
CORRUPTION
In all his campaigns for president, Akufo-Addo, ran on an anti-corruption platform. Everywhere he went, he affirmed with tired, clichéd reductionism that all the problems of Ghana and Ghanaians boiled down to corruption under John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress
He told Ghanaians that the powers of the highest office in the land must be exercised in an earnest ‘war on corruption’ for the country to recover its promise. His rallying cry had a prophetic repent-or-perish ring: ”Ghana must kill corruption or corruption will kill Ghana.”
More than five years, after he took office, the news cycle is furnishing cause for fears that corruption is killing the presidency of the presumed corruption slayer. His family members and close friends, have been frothing poisons instead of the antidote.
His minimalist response to the scandals all but testifies that that he has enough hypocrisy in him to nurse in his inner circle the corruption plague he affects to be invested in eradicating from our body politic.
The thinking of President Akufo-Addo, is that corruption is the preserve vice of his opponents. It is what other people do. And it is what his disciples are incapable of doing.
Nana Akufo-Addo, has the strong notion that human beings rise to infallibility by the virtue of their presence in his immaculate orbit. This fallacy in his head filters out accusations of corruption against members of his government. Thus, he is irritated by any suggestion that one of his men could be guilty of indiscretion.
BORROWING
Ghana’s public debt before Akufo-Addo took the oath of office in 2016, stood at GHS120 billion and our debt to GDP ratio at 55.6% (rebased economic data).
But as of close of June of last year,our Public debt which stood at GHS120 billion as at December 2016, has ballooned to GHS258.8 billion, (i.e as at June 2020). Also, our debt to GDP ratio which stood at 55.6% as at December 2016, has increased to 68.3% and projected by the IMF to hit 76.7% by December this year. It is projected that by the end of this year (2022) our debt to GDP, will be over 80 percent.
The rate at which this government is borrowing is not sustainable. President Akufo-Addo has added more to the public debt than any government had done in the history of this country.
The president and his party, promised in opposition to move the country from taxation to production, yet they keep burdening the Ghanaian with more taxes.
Our country is under attack from a plethora of problems, ranging from corruption, debt, education, opulence, arrogance, insensitive, etc. These problems threaten the foundation of our existence as a nation. We can only look to John Dramani Mahama to help repair the broken hedge, but that is a very tall order. This is why I pity him, I only hope and pray that, when the time comes, Ghanaians will bear and have patience for him, whiles he fixes what has been broken for eight years.
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